Brawn says rival teams should protest on Thursday if they have a problem with Mercedes DRS F-duct

By Jonathan Noble

Saturday, March 24th 2012, 13:25 GMT

Ross Brawn believes that if rival teams are so concerned about the legality of the rear wing on the Mercedes F1 W03 then they should make an official protest before a grand prix weekend gets underway.

The Mercedes system, often referred to as a DRS activated F-duct, has been the subject of much talk since the season kicked off in Australia last weekend.

The FIA has so far said that it sees no reason to ban the device, but that hasn't stopped rival teams continuing to speculate about its legality. And Brawn said he was tiring of the issue dragging on through race weekends as it was again a point of discussion after qualifying in Malaysia on Saturday.

"The correct time to bring these issues to a head, if you want to, is on a Thursday," said Brawn. "It is everybody's right to protest.

"As soon as scrutineering is finished [pre-event], if you wish to protest a system then that is the fair time to do it because you can bring it to a head before you get into qualifying, get into racing.

"Even in a business as competitive as we have there is some protocol, I believe."

Brawn said he had no problem with teams questioning a clever device on a rival's car, but he was disappointed with the way the issue is being handled.

"I can understand people are frustrated because they haven't thought of the idea, or they don't believe it's correct," he said. "And that's their right.

"But I've seen lots of things on racing cars where I've wondered at the interpretation, and that is the nature of our business.

"Bang a protest in on Thursday if you want to get it done, and leave the stewards to try and resolve the issue. Don't do it after qualifying or the race and spoil the event."

He added that Mercedes has come in for unfair treatment over the issue, as every team is trying to find clever ways to maximise performance with the DRS.

"There are a massive amount of things we can do with DRS, so to pick on one thing and say 'we don't like that very much because we haven't thought about it' is wrong," he said.

"We're optimising everything to get the best out of the car, and that's what the regulations encourage you to do.

"It says the purpose of the DRS is to improve overtaking, and that's what we're all trying. Good luck to anyone who can get the most out of it."